Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova – the Australian ABC reports scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science are surprised how rapidly the Australian Great Barrier Reef is recovering from the 2016 bleaching event.
Great Barrier Reef starts to recover after severe coral bleaching, survey of sites between Cairns and Townsville shows
By David Chen
Updated Fri at 3:41pm
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Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science this month surveyed 14 coral reefs between Cairns and Townsville to see how they fared after being bleached.
The institute’s Neil Cantin said they were surprised to find the coral had already started to reproduce.
“We’re finding corals that are showing early signs of reproductive development, really visible eggs that we can see under the naked eye,” Dr Cantin said.
“[It’s] very surprising as previous studies have shown a two-to-three year delay in reproductive activity following bleaching events.
“It means they have enough energy, they’ve recovered the zooxanthellae and the symbiosis and they even have energy to invest in reproduction and egg development.”
…
This is a very different narrative to last year;
Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching at 95 per cent in northern section, aerial survey reveals
7.30 By Peter McCutcheon
Updated 28 Mar 2016, 9:12pm
An aerial survey of the northern Great Barrier Reef has shown that 95 per cent of the reefs are now severely bleached — far worse than previously thought.
Professor Terry Hughes, a coral reef expert based at James Cook University in Townsville who led the survey team, said the situation is now critical.
“This will change the Great Barrier Reef forever,” Professor Hughes told 7.30.
“We’re seeing huge levels of bleaching in the northern thousand-kilometre stretch of the Great Barrier Reef.”
Of the 520 reefs he surveyed, only four showed no evidence of bleaching.
From Cairns to the Torres Strait, the once colourful ribbons of reef are a ghostly white.
“It’s too early to tell precisely how many of the bleached coral will die, but judging from the extreme level even the most robust corals are snow white, I’d expect to see about half of those corals die in the coming month or so,” Professor Hughes said.
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“There’s good and bad news — the bottom three quarters of the reef is in strong condition,” he said at the time.
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“Nonetheless we’re looking at 10-year recovery period, so this is a very severe blow.”
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Who could have imagined that an organism which survived hundreds of millions of years of mass extinction events, and thrived during the warm Holocene Optimum would demonstrate noteworthy recovery capabilities?
A coral reef is one giant battle for living space. If a section of reef dies off, that suddenly represents prime real estate that has opened for recolonization.
Wait. Maybe bleaching is a natural cycle. Maybe corals have done this for millions of years. Maybe we being lied to. Nah that’s impossible.
RT
I agree.
Corals have lived in invariant conditions – until the hour of the day of the invention of the SUV.
Then – Kapoweeeee!
Bleaching, and moving, and, and, oh, thriving . . . .
Mods – there is a slight hint of //SARC! in the foregoing.
Auto
All this based on aerial photos. We knew that was the limit of their ‘science’, good to have it confirmed.
Didn’t Prof Jim Steele show recently that many recent coral bleaching events were caused by sea level fall and corals getting exposed to air?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/04/05/falling-sea-level-the-critical-factor-in-2016-great-barrier-reef-bleaching/
In the light of the GBR rebound from the bleaching, it’s amusing to remind ourselves of the acrimonious exchange between Jim Steel and our friend Tripp Funderburk, who has made coral dystopia his career:
[quoting the above thread:]
Tripp Funderburk April 11, 2017 at 8:30 pm
Jim Steele, the bird call expert, says: “widescale bleaching not worrisome.” That is one of the dumbest statements I have ever read. The fact that so many sheep believe in this fiction is sad. Bleached corals expel algae that provide 90% of their food. Bleached corals do not grow, they do not reproduce, they have lost their food source and energy. Starving not worrisome? The fact that the denialists are so hopeful that widescale bleaching is not glaring obvious example of the destruction of climate change that they prop up Jim Steele, a nature walk expert, is unseemly. He is a charlatan, and pretending that the Great Barrier Reef is not bleaching due to anything but climate change is poppycock.
[NOTE: according to his Facebook page (linked in his response name section) Tripp has an MBA from Duke University and is the “Director of Operations at Coral Restoration Foundation International”.
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So it seems Tripp is just an policy/politics/business management guy with an interest in diving that found a job after his patron, Rep Bob Livington, imploded and resigned after a series of adulterous affairs made him national news. Other than surroundign himself with people who on this coral foundation, he appears to have no scientific training, unlike Jim Steele, otherwise he would not have to resort to to ad hom attacks on Mr. Steele’s training, and no other substantial arguments. Given coral is his sole source of employment, this famous quote is applicable to Tripp
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” – Upton Sinclair, 1935
– Anthony Watts]
Most of the alarmist “scientists” in Australia have no qualifications to support their hysteria … notably one, Tim Flannary, a mammalogist, who said we’d never have rain again … which led to the states of Queensland and Victoria building multi-billion dollar RO water plants which now, only a few years later, are rusting hulks.
14
The answer is 42.
Is that how many used cars/lemons you sold last year?
Mosher ==> Obviously, the BEST method has been applied. Current data showing that the past must be altered in order to maintain the cosmic order.
That’s because one article is talking about NORTHERN sections of the great barrier reef (i.e. cairns to the top of cape york) and the other about a section from Cairns to Townsville (a couple of 100 miles SOUTH of cairns). Why are all you d’niers such utter morons?
Not only do you know absolutely nothing about climate science, you haven’t got a clue about basic geography.
Both start at Cairns. How is one study “100s of miles” from the other?
What’s your opinion of the contradictions in the studies? Or do you believe there are none?
Either way you really haven’t offered a rebuttal to the fact the ‘doom gloom’ of the former study, isn’t supported by the latter.
Because Cairns to Cape York is >1000 kms. Cairns to Townsville is 350km. Far enough for you?
There seems to be an agreement: coral bleaching is highly localised, in addition to being temporary and reversible. What a relief to any sentient and rational human being.
Drop the misanthrope lexicon Bruce. Even the name of its own pet conjecture is unstable.
The bleaching isn’t localized- just worst in the northern part of the reef where about 80% of reefs are severely affected. 2014 – 2017 was globally the worst bleaching event in recorded history. The fact that some corals are seeing the potential for recovery is small comfort given that this is going to require a couple of years of cooler water temperatures in the region, which judging on the last 30 years is not going to happen. Hell, why don’t we chop down 1000 square miles of amazonian rainforest- I’m sure we’ll see the green shoots of recovery in a couple of years.
I wonder if any of you had actually dived in the region and saw for yourself the destruction rather than sat masturbating on your computers on WUWT you would think differently. But somehow I suspect not.
We seem to agree there is more to the misanthropogenic climate faith than Cape York-Townsville shoreline. However, where I come from, your idea of destruction seems somewhat limited:
-10% of my people starved to death in the optimum reference temperature of the misanthropic faith i.e. during the year without summer at the end of 19th century.
-Each generation culled in the battlefields all the way back to the recorded history in the 11th century, the 21st century being the only exception so far.
-It’s been exposed to Soviet era radiation e.g. Tsar Bomb, Chernobyl, Kola peninsula.
-And the shorelines share the same sea as the sewage pipes from Russia’s second-largest city after Moscow.
Yeah, that could count as destruction of >100,000 sq mi or at least gives you some perspective.
Never seen any coral around these shores though, not that anyone would shed tears because of it. Lack of coral could be because the season is too cold and short for cultivating even corn. Still able to see a cup half full, rather than half empty: coral has been taking care of itself some 542 million years without you. For these reason I suggest you try both your hobbies elsewhere for a change.
Bruce said: “2014 – 2017 was globally the worst bleaching event in recorded history.”
And how long is this “recorded history”? How many years can we go back and say that “globally” we have dived on the multitude of coral reefs around the world all in the same year to safely state with any scientific confidence that this is the worst event in recorded history.
This has all happened before and after a Super El Nino and this on a remote reef with few sources to re colonize. http://kimberleycoast.com.au/was-scott-reef-has-recovered-from-mass-bleaching-in-1998/
Yet lo and behold here we go again…. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-17/coral-bleaching-off-north-wa-worse-than-feared/7940770
same reef…similar bleaching and it will do a similar recovery yet the headlines are the same as in 1998. We are all doomed…the reef is doomed….but it will recover just like last time. I suspect that this reef has bleached many times over in the past, but it was not observed.
Climate change, climate change, climate change. Greenhouse gasses in the ozone and yet, the temperatures aren’t changing that much. HOWEVER, thousands of people going down to the coral reefs in their motor boats might not have any effect on those delicate corals. I would think they might be amazed at how nature recovers if they simply restricted motorized boats in the area.
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
CORALS evolved during the Cambrian era when atmospheric CO2 levels were at 6,000-7,000 ppm, around 4,000 percent or 20 times higher than today’s “CO2-starved” environment of 400 ppm, with atmospheric and ocean temps temps far higher than today.
CORALS have survived millions of years of dramatic and sudden climate change, yet climate alarmists want us to believe that a few hundred ppm more atmospheric CO2 is going to end us!?
CORAL bleaching is a naturally occurring phenomenon essential to the health and regrowth of coral reefs.
THE “Great Barrier Reef” is only “great” because it has died off at least 7 known times over the millennia.
CORAL reef fear-mongering is another man-made lie to push the man-made global warming aka climate change scam…
https://climatism.wordpress.com/2017/08/28/an-ecologists-plea-to-dr-terry-hughes-the-public-needs-robust-science-regards-coral-bleaching-not-fearmongering/
There is a TV program going to air here in Australia soon on ABC I think and it’s about how science will save the GBR with some sort of biological engineering IIRC. I reckon these “scientists” should just leave it well alone seems to be doing rather well and has been for a lot longer than we’ve been on this rock..
Utter hubris to think they can do better than hundreds of millions of years of survival.
Not hubris Eric. They want to rush to the front of the parade and “save” the coral because they now are worried it is saving itself just fine.
These guys shouldn’t be allowed near the coral with any “ideas” now that it’s revealed they don’t know anything about their life’s study.
I have to conclude that these creatures are the most successful lifeform that ever came into existence. Corals have been flourishing for 500million years, since the Cambrian, when animals with hard preservable parts (forming fossils) came into existence.
As I said in a recent thread, corals have been to the funerals of over 95% of all species of life that have ever lived. Their robust “lifestyle” has resulted in proliferation of countless varieties, a testiment to their unsurpassed adaptability.
Australian science itself will take a generation to recover from the brain-bleaching of the mainstream consensus ‘bludger spangled drongos’.
Nowhere on earth will you find more courageous skeptics, though, but they seem to number few. I hope they have healthy reproductive systems. The main thing is to somehow effect a massive change in their sclerotic structure and modus op of government.
“Remarkable recovery” is what the Aussie tourism lobby demanded.
file this in the same folder as the “Where did all the oil go in the Gulf of Mexico ? stories” …. more “experts” revealing they are mostly ignorant about their chosen field …
The retraction of the headline news is always on page B9.
This is entirely expected by all who are aware of the dynamics of the GRB Wars. AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science) does real unbiased research and publishes something closer to the truth a month or two after the so-called ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University issues yet-another “all is lost — the reef is dead” cry for global warming alarm.
This has been going on so long that it is a standing joke to those on the sidelines of Australian science.
Aligning on the side of truth and justice in Australia is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) which is the government agency responsible for protecting and managing the reef.
There is no doubt that the two consecutive years of bleaching events have damaged portions of the reef and that the typhoon added to the havoc.
But like forests after a wildfire, the reefs will repopulate and rejuvenate — on their own time scale. It can be heartbreaking to visit a forest recently burned off by fire — but the Springs to come bring forth wildflowers, new growth, and the beauty of the young forest — an essential environmental niche for many plants and animals unsuited for life in a mature forest. I suspect the same is true for the GBR and other reefs around the world.
Bleaching events and powerful storms not only damage but also present the reef with the opportunity of a new start, with different species in different developmental stages.
Very well said, Kip.
Another example of an shocked environmental system occurs when a hurricane picks up speed heading north up the east coast of the USA, and slams into New England. Such hurricanes are rare; most either curve out to sea or move so slowly they weaken. When a hurricane accelerates north it retains winds strong enough to flatten New England’s forests, especially up on the tops of hills. We haven’t had such a hurricane since Carol in 1954, so when it happens again it will seem “unprecedented.”
When I was young, besides a “zest for the best” I had a “thirst for the worst.”. I didn’t like old geezers telling me “it has happened before.” Now I have become one of those old geezers. When the young get wide-eyed with excitement I’m always spoiling their fun by saying, “That tain’t nothing. Back when I was young…”
I suppose the young are bored, and one needs to feed their enthusiasm for mayhem a bit. When walking in the woods around here all the trees blown down in 1954 have rotted away, but in places there are still stripes of green moss on the forest floor where those logs once were. I like to point out the stripes, and then make my eyes round and my voice a bit spooky, and talk about all the trees being flattened in 1954, ending, “And it could happen again, this coming September.”
That livens up a dull day, without increasing anyone’s taxes.
Caleb ==> (an interesting Biblical name — with an interesting connotation. Studied his story when being indoctrinated into the arcane world of Intelligence).
So many things are improved by taking the long view — “presentism” is one of the great plagues of our day.
The fine people of Woodstock, NY all believe they are living in a oh-so-wonderful primeval forest — which are, in fact, third and fourth growth scrub (weed) growth atop the tailings of last century’s bluestone quarries.
Visited Great Barrier Reef near Cairns in March of 2017. Beautiful. Consensus of local divers was that bleaching is normal in hotter years for coral near the surface. If the seas haven’t risen fast enough to keep the coral covered (like after the last ice age) it thrives at deeper depths. Plus freshly bleached coral (within one year) is a ready host for newly spawned coral.
Bollocks. No diver would have said that.
Bruce ==> I am afraid that this is the case — bleaching only affect shallow-water reefs those reefs that can be viewed from glass-bottomed boast and snorkelers. That’s why you can always see the surface in photos of bleached coral.
Reefs that required scuba gear are almost never affected at all, and supply the replenishment organisms that migrate to the bleached coral on the shallow reefs.
Suggest you do a little research of your own to discover this for yourself.
Actually, some years ago, (2007?) when I first became aware of the “bleaching” hysteria, what I did was to travel via the web to various Australian tourism sites, and read the comments at those sites.
At one site, at a place where tourists were taken on scuba and snorkeling dives, the divers were rather gruffly discussing the scientists. They did seem to feel “it has happened before,” and the hysteria was “much ado about nothing.”
What the discussion seemed to revolve around was whether the idiot scientists would drive tourists away, or attract more tourists who would want to see the reef “before it was too late.”
One did.
But he was Ginger.